A year ago, after a successful Kickstarter campaign the first GNARBOXes arrived, and now, 12 months later, the GNARBOX 2.0 SSD hits Kickstarter. Based on user feedback and new in almost every way.
In order to bring you up to speed with the GNARBOX 2.0, please make sure to read our initial coverage of the original version of this versatile backup solution. No laptop or phone are required in order to backup like a champ, although with this version 2.0 a smartphone or tablet is strongly recommended.
GNARBOX 2.0
The original GNARBOX (please forgive the capital letters… I didn’t came up with that name) was very successful on Kickstarter. But the guys behind it had some troubles once the campaign was over. The creators put it like this:
If you were a part of the Kickstarter for GNARBOX 1.0, you know that we encountered significant delays in the design and manufacturing process. The longest delay was a result of our change in the box’s CPU. Over the last 9 months, we’ve vetted possible CPU’s and architectures, ultimately selecting one that meets all of our requirements. We have a clear path to market after working with Intel over the past 3 years, and expect no delays.
So that’s good. And without further ado, let us dive into the features and improvements of the brand-new GNARBOX 2.0:
At its core it’s still a portable and very versatile, bespoke backup device. It comes in different capacities (128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB) and will let you backup your valuable footage with ease – and without the need to bring a dedicated laptop for that job. It offers checksum verification and in contrast to the original version it sports an OLED screen. To me, a visual feedback on what’s going on is a very welcomed feature.
The GNARBOX 2.0 creates an ad-hoc wifi network to which you can connect with your smartphone or tablet. It also offers two USB-C connectors, a SD card reader & a micro HDMI port. The replaceable (!) Li-Ion battery is rated 3200mAh / 7.4v which lasts for about 5 hours of backuping or 3 hours worth of editing. Editing? Yes, we’ll come to that.
The unit itself is rated IP76 which means it’s protected from dust and capable of withstanding water immersion between 15 cm and 1 meter for 30 minutes. A rugged device is a good device when you’re working in the field – and that’s exactly what the GNARBOX 2.0 is made for.
The built-in SD card reader transfers your files at 75 MB/s while any card reader fast enough transfers your footage at 450 MB/s via USB-C.
The unit itself is driven by a 2.40 GHz Intel Quad Core CPU and a 4-core Intel HD Graphics GPU. 802.11 ac/b/g/n wifi ensures swift connections over the air.
Different Apps for Different Jobs
The GNARBOX 2.0 is more than one device. Depending on your given job it can adapt to that workflow. The most basic task doesn’t need an app, though: Back up your footage with just the press of a button, complete with checksum verification and visual feedback.
For all other, more fancy, workflows: there’s an app for that:
Safekeep: With safekeep you can move files across cards, your GNARBOX, hard drives and RAIDs in an easy-to-use interface. Organize your files and folders, rename them or automatically sync them to Dropbox once you have internet access via wifi once you’re back in civilization. The idea here is that you don’t need to bring a laptop but your footage is ready when your home to start working right away.
Selects: This one is for photographers. You can quickly preview RAW images while still in the field. This app also provides tools for a quick and basic color correction. A 5-star rating can be applied for pre-selecting good shots.
Sequences: Video guys should take a closer look at this app. After offloading your footage to the GNARBOX 2.0, you can review high resolution footage and render into editing formats such as ProRes. Trimming clips, organizeing shots into bins and throwing together a rough-cut is also possible. Once your done you can export any sequence created in the field to Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro via XML. Again, no laptop needed here but once you’re back home you can start working on that rough-cut straight away.
Showcase: This app is not really meant to be used in the field but once you’re near a giant LCD screen, it could be very handy. This app lets you view your photos or videos on any monitor or television using the microHDMI port. Using your phone or tablet connected to the GNARBOX 2.0 via ad-hoc wifi, it’s easy to navigate the files using thumbnail collections. All files play back in real time.
Watch this video for a full 27-minute rundown of all the features of the new GNARBOX 2.0:
It is a very versatile little box, indeed. One of the best things is the user-replacable Li-Ion battery which ensures uptime when you need it. Neat!
Pricing and Availability
I can’t stress this enough: Kickstarter is not a marketplace. It is a place where you can invest into future products which you’ll get at a discounted price in return. These products might or might not see the light of day. Since the guys behind the GNARBOX 2.0 have done it before and they most likely have learned a lot during their original campaign, chances are pretty good to see the GNARBOX 2.0 by the end of 2018.
Kickstarter timeline
The GNARBOX 2.0 comes in 4 different cpacities which sell (as in: invest) for $299 (128GB), $379 (256GB), $449 (512GB) and $699 (1TB). Each model comes with a spare Li-Ion battery, a wall charger and a charging cable.
The campaing still runs until June 2nd and it’s already funded by over 800%.
Links: Kickstarter.com
What do you think? Is this the device you want to use when you’re working in the field and don’t want to bring your laptop? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Hot on the heels of Musicbed’s latest announcement of the complete overhaul of their website, there is another news to report: Introducing Musicbed Membership.
To make it clear right away: Single-use licenses aren’t going anywhere, this new way of subscription based licensing music for your projects is an addition to the old-fashioned way.
Musicbed Membership
Musicbed, one of the pioneers of online music licensing back in 2011, will introduce a new way of accessing its vast roster of music this summer: Musicbed Membership. This will not replace the current single-use licensing model but complement it. Musicbed’s CEO Daniel McCarthy puts it like this:
We’re excited to introduce an entirely new way for people to license from Musicbed. Creatives work in a lot of different ways — some need single-use licenses and some need a subscription model — and now we’re making our artists’ music available to everyone.
Starting this summer, you’ll getting unlimited access to almost all of Musicbed’s composers, bands, and artists and you will have the choice between a monthly or yearly fee. The whole thing works exactly as the single-use licensing: Pricing is tailored specifically to the type of films you make. Licensing music for a big-budget car commercial, airing all over the world, will be significally more expensive than the same piece of music for your personal project.
Almost the whole of Musicbed’s catalogue will be available on Membership and there’s another cool feature they’re working on: Every single song in Membership will be pre-cleared and ready to license for YouTube.
Pricing
No, not a word on pricing yet. The guys behind Musicbed are still working out the details. Don’t expect it to be super cheap, though. Licensing proper music made by real people who are working passionately is not the cheapest thing to do but it will add a lot of production value to your work as a filmmaker.
credit: Musicbed
You can enter your email and get notified once Musicbed Membership goes live. Use the link below to head over to their site.
Links: Musicbed.com
What do you think? Would you like to pay once and don’t worry about licensing anymore? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Frame.io has just unveiled a complete overhauled version of its popular video collaboration plattform. It’s due this summer and it’s all about speed – and a ton of new features, too.
Frame.io is an online tool for video collaboration. It helps you gathering feedback from your clients, hassle-free. Read all about it in our previous coverage here. It integrates deeply with your favourite NLE such as Premeiere Pro or Final Cut Pro X. For 2018, Frame.io’s CEO Emery Wells has just announced a major overhaul of the frame.io plattform.
The All-New Frame.io
The coming release of Frame.io, due this summer, is all ablout speed. The company has rewritten the core code from scratch, resulting in superior performance and upload speeds.
Frame.io is claiming a massive 100x speed increase for browsing and uploading vast libraries of assets. Assuming you have access to a very beefy uplink connection, the new media uploader now supports speeds north of 1 gigabit while leaving nested folder structures unaltered.
new Frame.io dashboard.
The media browser got an update, too. With the new version, you’ll get bespoke workspaces for video, audio, images (including several RAW formats and even GIFs) and multi-page PDF documents. Dedicated tools make it easy to interact with these different types of media.
Bespoke audio player.
Along with these bespoke workspaces, the underlying core video playback engine ensures buttery smooth video loading, browsing and playback, even at 4K resolutions.
New Collaborative Tools
With the new version, users can now provide not only frame-accurate comments but also range-based feedback. Just drag and drop the comment handles and share your ideas about that given snippet. This makes it easier for you to understand what your client really wants.
Another neat (and completely new) feature is called Presence. Now you can monitor who exactly is watching your video right now and what these persons are up to. You can see who of your invitees has seen the clip and who still has to see it. You can also watch in real time who is commenting on the video and where exactly. Clip statistics show you play count, historical views, and even let you set up a notification when a specific person or group of people start viewing.
A new version manager lets you add, remove or rearrange specific versions in the stack. This definitely helps to keep things clean and tidy throughout the project.
Availability
This new version of Frame.io will roll out this summer, you can join their mailing list in order to get a head start once it’s live ans also get a 90-day free trial.
Oh, one more thing: If you’re wondering if there’s a DaVinci Resolve integration coming, this comment by Emery Wells himself might cheer you up:
We have plenty of love for Resolve. Stay tuned.
Links: Blog Post | free trial sign-up
Do you already use Frame.io? What do think of this all-new version? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

When you’re editing on the go, you may need to create quality voice recordings. The Universal Audio Arrow with bus power over a Thunderbolt 3 connection could be just the right tool for that job.
Since everything electronic keeps getting more and more portable (and affordable) these days, we, the users, want to have it all. Shoot, edit, color grade, master and deliver entire movies while on the go. That might include some quality voiceovers, too. In comes the new Universal Audio Arrow recording interface with some neat tricks up its sleeve.
Univeral Audio Arrow
This little device doesn’t produce any major cable clutter since a single Thunderbolt 3 cable provides both signal and power – a feature that already proves the Arrow’s purpose: portability.
Since the Arrow is meant to be taken on the road with you, ruggedness is a must. As such, the the all-metal body of the interface lacks any presence of plastic.
In terms of connectivity, the UA Arrow offers the following: two combo XLR / ¼” jacks on the back and one dedicated ¼” input for an electric guitar or a bass on the front. Two ¼” jacks on the back and one ¼” headphone jack on the front of the unit take care of your output.
Watch the video below for a short demo of the Arrow:
Of course, the video is more about music recordings. However, if music production on the go isn’t a problem with this little interface, quality voice recordings for video are child’s play.
Specifications
All analogue inputs travel through a quality ADC (analogue-digital converter) where it gets the 24bit/192kHz treatment. According to Universal Audio, the converters in place originate from its flagship Apollo line of interfaces, which guarantees good quality.
The upper part of the Arrow offers a well thought-out and minimalist interface. Dedicated buttons for 48V phantom power, input selection, high-pass filter and other functions offer a user-friendly operation, while the large rotary encoder acts as a control for monitor levels and preamps.
If you’re into music recording, the Universal Audio signature Unison preamps offer a whole world of plugins in order to color the incoming signal on the fly. The Arrow comes bundled with a few vintage plugins already, and others can be purchased separately.
I think the unique selling point for the Universal Audio Arrow recording interface is the quality chain of ADC and Unison preamps. Together with the provided 48V Phantom Power feature, this could be a very decent on-the-go recording studio for YouTubers, editors and filmmakers alike.
Pricing and Availability
The Arrow is available now and sells for $499. However, in order to actually work with it, you’ll need a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-c connector) cable, which is sold seperately.
A quad-core i7 (or better) processor is recommended. The Universal Audio Arrow works with both Mac (mac OS 10.12 or newer) and Windows (Windows 10 with anniversary update 64bit edition).
links: Universal Audio
Do you need to record high-quality voiceovers from time to time? What do you think of this little device? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

With the start of a new year, it’s time to break into new horizons. At least that’s what the Filmstro developers must have thought to themselves. Here it is, the all-new Filmstro plugin panel for Final Cut Pro X.
With the standalone Filmstro Pro app, its dedicated Premiere Pro plugin and iOS siblings, the all-new Filmstro Final Cut Pro X plugin joins an already grown-up family. The standalone version and the Premiere Pro plugin is available for both macOS and Windows machines. Due to the nature of its host software, the Final Cut Pro X plugin is only available for macOS, obviously.
Filmstro for Final Cut Pro X
From time to time, the relationship between video and music seems to be a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. Edit video first and compose bespoke music for that very piece? Or do you prefer the less expensive way of choosing the music first and than edit the video to match?
That’s where Filmstro comes in. In order to get you up to speed, read our coverage about this fresh approach to music here. It’s really all about choosing a piece of music from the vast Filmstro catalogue, importing it into your timeline and then tune it to your specific needs using just keyframes and the three sliders that control Momentum, Depth and Power.
Over time, the catalogue has grown bigger, the algorithms have become smarter and bugs have been squashed, but Filmstro didn’t stop there. The developers kept pushing on and released a dedicated plugin for Premiere Pro in early 2017. Now, about a year later, a dedicated plugin for Final Cut Pro X has finally entered the scene. Let’s have a brief look at it in the video below:
If you’re working with Final Cut Pro X on a regular basis, this is definitely worth a closer look! The Filmstro standalone app is a good starting point, but it’s in this native integration with your NLE of choice that Filmstro really shines! No more exporting, editing, importing again, checking, exporting… you get the point. With an integration this deep, the app itself becomes almost invisible, leaving only the mighty ability of tweaking a given musical theme to your exact liking.
How it Works
Just to be clear: you’re limited to the Filmstro catalogue of music tracks. However, since the guys behind it work as professional composers and musicians – and more tracks are being added on a regualar basis – there’s a very good chance that you’ll find whatever you’re seeking.
Premiere Pro and FCPX plugins side by side.
The Filmstro Premiere Pro panel already offers a great level of integration and performance and I expect nothing less of the new Final Cut Pro X plugin. To get to know the Filmstro Final Cut Pro plugin even better, have a look at this video for a full rundown:
In order to work properly, you’ll need a recent version of Final Cut Pro X and the standalone Filmstro Pro app, which will act as a backend for the plugin.
Conclusion
You should give Filmstro a try to see if it works for you and your project. All I can say is that the level of integration for both Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X is really good. The catalogue of available music is ever growing and, to me, the ability to tweak a given musical theme to my edit precisely is a really a win.
Filmstro is a based on a subscription model, and the individual price varies according to your field of work. Head over to their site in order to determine a fitting plan for your needs.
As a starter, Filmstro offers our dear readers an exclusive offer: when choosing a suiting plan for your business, please use the code C5D_FCPX in order to receive the first month free of charge.
To be clear: If you sign up for a monthly subscription plan and use the aforementioned promo code, you’ll get the first month for free. After that, you’ll be charged with a monthly fee depending on your plan.
link: Website
Have you ever used Filmstro before? What do you think of the Final Cut Pro X integration? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

As we reported last month, Apple is now shipping the new iMac Pro. Like a lot of people, I was excited to get my hands on the fastest Mac ever created. Having tried it out on a project for the past two weeks, I thought I’d share my iMac Pro hands-on review with you all now.
Out of the box
The first thing I noticed, of course, was the beautiful slate grey finish of both the iMac Pro and its accessories. Now that black is back, I guess champagne gold won’t be far around the corner! Aside from its good looks, the next thing to tickle my fancy was the huge array of ports on the back. Having committed to updating all my peripherals to USB-C last year, I was already in good shape to take advantage of the four Thunderbolt 3 ports. The inclusion of four USB 3 ports were still welcome, however, as it meant my legacy external SSDs and DaVinci Resolve 14 dongle could easily be accommodated too.
Configuration
The unit I’ve been reviewing is the mid-range iMac Pro, which I think gives the best balance between cost and performance. This configuration can be yours for the princely sum of £6,332.50 excluding VAT…
27-inch, 10-bit, 500 nits brightness, Wide colour (P3), Retina 5K display (5120×2880)
3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz
64GB 2666MHz DDR4 ECC memory
2TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB of HBM2 memory
Magic Mouse 2 – Space Grey
Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad – Space Grey
Now, I’m not for a minute going to pretend that that isn’t a lot of money to spend on a computer. However, those that refuse to see beyond the price are ignoring that this is a hell of a lot of premium hardware Apple are giving us. I’d argue it represents better cost per performance than the Mac Pro did when it re-launched in 2013, and pretty much every facility I visit has a Mac Pro in their suite(s).
Upgradibility
As you may have heard, the iMac Pro can’t be opened up by the end user, have its innards ripped out and be upgraded with new bits. This seems to have got some people rather cross, which I must say I find amusing. You can’t even stick a micro SD card in the £1,000 iPhone X, for goodness sake; why are people surprised that the iMac Pro isn’t user-upgradeable?! Seriously, though, while this may be of concern to a facility looking to kit out a building with many, many workstations – where their priority will be prolonging the usefulness of these systems to avoid having to sell/chuck out kit for as long as possible – it is of no concern to me, nor to most small businesses. For those who do want user-upgradeability, Apple is working on two new solutions right now – an external Thunderbolt 3 breakout box and an all-new modular Mac Pro. But for me personally, the last thing I am interested in is ripping apart my computer and swapping out components. After all, it’s not 1977 and I don’t spend my evenings at a home brew computer club! These days, I think most individuals simply buy the best thing they can afford that will eat up everything they throw at it, and when they feel like it’s not quite coping with what they’re asking it do to (probably in two or three years’ time) they will sell it and put that money towards the next one. And Apple computers still keep their value remarkably well, just check listings on eBay.
Speed
OK, I’ll be honest, this is not one of those reviews with lots of benchmarks. That information is already out there anyway and, to save you the bother of reading them, they all show that the iMac Pro is faster than anything else Apple has ever made. For me, I was far more interested in knowing whether or not it felt faster. Too often I buy something because it is 30% better at this, or 2x better at that, but you get it home and play with it, and those numbers just don’t translate into real life gains. So, rather unscientifically, I started editing a project I had logged on my MacBook Pro to see if I would immediately feel the difference.
I did. Oh, boy, did I feel it! I mean, this thing is just silly fast. Every time it rendered, or analysed my clips for stabilisation or optical flow, I would watch with delight as the little background process wheel span around so fast, you’d miss it if you blinked. Playing back 4K, 6K, even 8K footage didn’t seem to bother it in the least. It would occasionally drop a frame here or there if I was playing back 8K ProRes 422 HQ, but 8K ProRes LT was fine and, quite frankly, the odd dropped frame here and there doesn’t stop you editing. The big real-world test for me was, could I edit 10-bit 50p 4K raw from my C200 natively, with no dropped frames and seamless changes in direction with the transport keys (I do like to rock back and forth on J and L when editing on the fly). The answer was a big fat YES. In fact, even if I deliberately whizzed my playhead back and forth as quickly as possible, it still skimmed through with ease, as if it were just some 8-bit compressed HD rubbish! ;)
Now, one of the things that I do think is worth measuring accurately, is export times. I wanted to quantify how much time someone could expect to save when exporting multiple deliverables, as this is something that has a direct impact on everyone’s working day. I timed how long it took to do two exports of a 5m 46s case study I was delivering, and then compared that to my top-spec 2017 15” MacBook Pro. I exported a ProRes 422 4K 25p master and an H.264 HD 25p deliverable and here are the results:
15” MacBook Pro 2017 – Master Export – 11m 01s
15” MacBook Pro 2017 – Client Deliverable – 21m 43s
iMac Pro – Master Export – 3m 10s
iMac Pro – Client Deliverable – 6m 27s
Just look at those numbers! People who buy the new iMac Pro might have to take up an extra hobby to fill up all their spare time!
**UPDATE**
My friend and fellow cinema5D writer, Tim Fok, asked me to do a head-to-head with his iMac 5K, as he was wondering if it was worth upgrading and wanted a direct comparison. So we both did a basic transcode with the same 51 second, 6K, .r3d file. We exported to HD Pro Res 4444, making sure all our settings were exactly the same in REDCINE-X PRO and here are our results:
iMac Pro – 0m 56s
iMac 5K (Late 2014), 4Ghz i7, 32GB RAM, AMD Radeon R9 4GB GPU – 2m 53s
Conclusion
I have several jobs booked in for February and March that need to be shot in raw and mastered in 4K, HDR. For me, the iMac Pro was designed for exactly these types of workflow. The incredible display is clearly designed to showcase this type of content and the horsepower is more than enough to cut and grade this stuff natively and quickly. As long as you configure it with a spec that will see you through the next two to three years, you won’t care about the lack of upgradability. And if you think that building a PC with the same spec hardware is going to save you a fortune, think again too. Once you factor in that outstanding display, you really aren’t that far off and, besides, you can’t put a cost on that lovely, shiny, black Apple logo ;)
Are you considering spending big bucks on the new iMac Pro? Let us know in the comments!

Blackmagic Design have had quite the year. From releasing cutting edge hardware, like their recently announced Decklink 8K Pro, the mighty Ursa Mini Pro and their fantastic Micro and Mini controllers, to the latest major update for DaVinci Resolve. You’d have thought Grant Petty and his team were done for 2017! Today, however, they announced an all new DaVinci Resolve Training and Certification Programme.
Ecosystem
Apple, Adobe and Microsoft all learnt a long time ago that certified trainers and end-users, qualified via the relevant exams, played a key role in the growth of their software communities. Having been both an Apple and Adobe certified trainer during the past ten years, I know only too well what an important part these networks of highly-skilled instructors and training partners play in the ecosystems of these companies.
Courseware
After a lot of preparation, Blackmagic have now announced the start of their own, internationally-recognised, DaVinci Resolve Training and Certification programme. The first course to be available will be a three-day intro to all aspects of DaVinci Resolve 14, based on The Definitive Guide to DaVinci Resolve 14 written by Blackmagic’s own Paul Saccone. An advanced colour grading course, written by my friend and colleague Daria Fissoun, will follow next year and, further down the line, other advanced editing and workflow courses will become available. These too will be based around official courseware and exams, put together by Blackmagic and taught by certified Blackmagic trainers, such as myself.
Blackmagic describe The Definitive Guide to DaVinci Resolve 14 as a “step-by-step training guide that covers basic editing, color correction and Fairlight audio in DaVinci Resolve 14. The book is designed for both new users and established professionals that are switching to DaVinci Resolve from another editing system.”
The Definitive Guide to DaVinci Resolve 14
Certification
All courses will be available online, as well as in a classroom environment. However you choose to learn, the courses are all run by Blackmagic Design Certified Training Partners, such as my own UK company Korro Academy * (you can search for your local one here) and delivered by official certified trainers. With a pass threshold of 80% or higher, their exams will allow only the most highly-skilled end users to become officially recognised by Blackmagic, and will be added to an online database of certified professional users.
Blackmagic Design Training Partner
Trainers
In preparation for the launch of their new training and certification programme, Blackmagic have spent the last twelve months running train-the-trainer courses for around 300 hand-picked specialists from around the world. I was very flattered to be one of the individuals invited to join this group and, with people like Warren Eagles, Denver Riddle, Steve Hullfish, Robbie Carman and others also involved, it’s safe to say that future trainees will be in capable hands!
The DaVinci Resolve Training and Certification Programme is a major new cog in the Blackmagic Design machine, helping to pad out their support offerings around the globe and no doubt leading to more and more skilled operators in their products.
* As one of our sponsors, all cinema5D readers receive a 10% discount off training at Korro Academy using the code KORROC5D
What do you think about certified training? Do you plan on taking the courses or exams? Let us know in the comments below!

Are you looking for a smart solution to sync your camera with a sound recorder? The Tentacle Sync E is the latest model from the German company of the same name, and it might be the solution to your problems.
These days the market is full of very accessible, very capable small cameras to choose from. While these cameras deliver beautiful cinematic images, many of these cameras offer very limited audio capabilities: the built-in preamps are noisy, the A/D conversion chips aren’t that good and adjusting the settings is somewhat rudimentary. Manufacturers concentrate all their efforts on delivering the best possible image quality, while audio is degraded to a necessary but annoying side note.
External Audio
The best solution to this dilemma lies in the separate recording of image and sound. This means that, in addition to the camera, a dedicated external audio recorder enters the equation. These devices offer far better audio quality, but this setup causes another problem altogether: syncronization.
For everything to match up, you have to sync your devices – whether that’s a camera with an external audio recorder, two or more cameras, or even all of it. It’s always a matter of perfect timing and frame accuracy between devices when you avoid problems in post-production. Unfortunately, only higher-end audio recorders come with a dedicated timecode generator built in. The solution? Another device to manage the syncing for us. Meet the new Tentacle Sync E, an upgraded and improved version of the original Tentacle Sync device.
Tentacle Sync E
This new version sports an updated design but is still very lightweight and tiny. It measures just 38 x 50 x 15 mm and weights only 30 g (1 oz). While the old version needed to be set up with a computer, this new Tentacle Sync E has Bluetooth built-in, meaning you now can set up, control and monitor your whole wireless timecode system via a smartphone app for iOS or Android.
The Tentacle Sync E plugs into your camera’s microphone input, thus disabling your camera’s built-in microphone. The device itself has its own on-board microphone for recording scratch audio, which will be recorded to one of the two channels of the stereo signal. For this purpose, the audio quality has improved considerably from the original Tentacle. The remaining audio channel will carry the timecode signal for syncronization. Very neat!
The built-in battery is replaceable, will power the device for up to 35 hours of continuous use and is rechargeable via USB-C. (UPDATE: The company will soon be offering a replacement battery kit for both the original and Sync E models. However, you will need to work with these Tentacles for a few years before you need to replace the battery.) The device features a locking “tentacle clamp” to firmly secure jacks in the 3.5mm output socket.
How it Works
Once you have connected all your the Tentacle units via Bluetooth, you can name each device from within the app. In addition, you can use the included rubber straps to color code all of your Tentacles on set. Each Tentacle Sync E can act as a master clock for all the other Tentacles, or you can jam-sync them to any external timecode source. Once everything is set up, you can use your phone to check battery levels, timecode accuracy and settings.
Tentacle clamps, rubber straps and velcro pads for mounting.
Once your shooting day wraps, all you need is to do is load all the recorded files to the supplied Tentacle Sync Studio software. All clips will be synced automatically and you can export a XML or AAF file for further editing in your favorite NLE. Unfortunately, the software is only available for MacOS, although Windows users can resort to an included Tentacle Sync app that reads and converts audio timecode to a file. You can then use your NLE to sync all the recorded clips.
Features
The Tentacle Sync E is pretty feature-rich for such a tiny device. It’s good to see that the guys behind it are working hard in order to push the limits and improve their already very popular original Tentacle.
Inaccuracy less than 1 frame within 24 hours
Improved high-quality built-in Microphone
Switchable Mic/Line output
Uses LTC timecode according to SMPTE-12M standard
SMPTE timecode rates: 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 29.97DF and 30 FPS
Integrated hook surface on back for easy mounting
Super small (38 x 50 x 15 mm) and lightweight (30 g / 1 oz)
The Tentacle Sync E can be purchased as a single unit or as a set of two. Each device comes bundled with Tentacle Sync Studio.
link: tentaclesync.com
Are you using timecode generators in your workflow? Share your thoughts in the comments below!